Africa Great Lakes Democracy Watch

Welcome toAfrica Great Lakes Democracy Watch Blog.Our objective is to promote the institutions of democracy,social justice,Human Rights,Peace, Freedom ofExpression, and Respect to humanity in Rwanda,Uganda,DR Congo, Burundi,Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya,Ethiopia, and Somalia. We strongly believe that Africa will develop if only our presidents stop being rulers of men and become leaders of citizens. We support Breaking the Silence Campaign for DR Congo since we believe the democracy in Rwanda means peace inDRC. Follow this link to learn more about the origin of the war in both Rwanda and DR Congo:http://www.rwandadocumentsproject.net/gsdl/cgi-bin/library

Thursday, June 21, 2012

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, June 21, 7:32 AM

JOHANNESBURG — A Rwandan general
who was once a top aide to Rwandan President Paul Kagame but now is
among his most prominent critics said Thursday that Kagame ordered the
killing of the previous president that sparked Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa made the accusation Thursday as
he testified in a Johannesburg courtroom about an attempt on his own
life in 2010 in South Africa. The shooting of Nyamwasa, and
developments in other countries, have raised suspicions that Rwanda’s
government has deployed hit teams against dissidents abroad. Rwanda
denies the accusations.

Asked why the three Rwandans and three Tanzanians on trial may
have wanted him dead, Nyamwasa, once Kagame’s military chief, described
a breakdown in his relationship with Kagame.
“I ran out of the country because my life was threatened,” Nyamwasa testified.
Nyamwasa
fled in 2010 to South Africa, where he was shot months after arrival.
Nyamwasa testified Thursday that a bullet remains lodged at the base of
his spinal column.
Rwanda’s government has denied involvement in the attempted murder.
Nyamwasa
testified Thursday that another Rwandan exiled in South Africa allowed
him to listen in secret to a telephone call with a top Rwandan army
official in Rwanda. Nyamwasa said the caller from Rwanda was looking for
someone to help “eliminate” Nyamwasa. Nyamwasa said he reported the
conversation to South African authorities before he was shot, but that
his security was stepped up only after the shooting.
He added, as a
further explanation of why he may have been targeted: “There are facts
in my knowledge that the president of Rwanda ordered the killing of the
former president of Rwanda, President Habyarimana.”
Rwanda’s
100-day genocide was sparked by the shooting down of then-President
Juvenal Habyarimana’s plane in 1994. Militants from the Hutu ethnic
majority blamed Tutsis, sparking the massacre of more than 500,000
Tutsis and moderate Hutus, a frenzied slaughter that was stopped when
Kagame’s Tutsi rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, toppled the
Hutu extremists.
While the Rwandan government blames Hutu
extremists for the crash that killed Habyarimana, accusations persisted
for years that Kagame’s Tutsi rebel force shot down the plane. A
French investigation completed earlier this year found that the missile
fire came from a military camp and not Tutsi rebels. French judges had
filed preliminary charges against Kagame’s allies and were investigating
the crash because a French air crew was killed.
Nyamwasa was not
allowed to elaborate Thursday after the judge ruled that the general was
merely speculating and not offering evidence of the suspects’ motives.
A
South African lawyer hired by Rwanda’s government to monitor the
proceedings, Gerhard van der Merwe, said after Thursday’s session that
it was unfortunate accusations could be leveled without Kagame being
given an opportunity to respond.
Nyamwasa was for years a top
Kagame aide. In testimony over the last two days, he has described a
falling out that may have led to his apparent demotion from national
security coordinator to ambassador to India in 2004.

Several armed groups in the vast Kivu
Province have joined hands in a bid to force a major break away from the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Chimpreports.com can exclusively
reveal.

Led
by Colonel Albert Kahasha, the groups are seeking territorial
independence and will soon announce a government separate from the
Kinshasa leadership.

In
a statement released Thursday to this news website, a provincial
platform has been formed, “in protest against the central government in
Kinshasa inability to take the leadership in reconciliation between the
daughters and sons of the Great Kivu.”

Signed by a one Martin Tetunga on behalf of the “Reconciliatory Consultative Council

For Security Development In The Great Kivu,” the statement further reads:

“Members
to this platform are the following: Pareco, The group lead by Colonel
Albert Kahasha, CNDP/M23 and the union of Congolese for the defense of
Democracy.”

Tetunga
also notes that “consultation with the leadership of the following
groups is on the way: Mai Mai Raia Mutomboki, Mai Mai Cheka, Mai Mai
Yakutumba and the group known as Mudundu 40.”

The
development comes on the backdrop of a mutiny led by warlord Gen. Bosco
Ntaganda that has plunged the country in deeper political turmoil.

Speaking
to press on Tuesday in Kigali, President Paul Kagame denied any
involvement in the Congo crisis that has forced thousands of refugees to
Rwanda and Uganda.

Kagame
denied that Rwanda was supporting Ntaganda with arms and forces,
blaming the international community for peddling lies and fuelling the
crisis for economic gain.

Kinshasa
authorities have publicly accused Kigali of supporting a mutiny in
Congo which has threatened peace and security in the region.

Some
rebel commanders now believe splitting Congo from Kivu will bring about
peace, unity and respect of human rights in the region thus solving the
DRC crisis.

According
to Tetunga, as a regional structure, the objectives of the
‘Reconciliatory Consultative Council For Security Development In The
Great Kivu’ include initiating reconciliation among the daughters and
sons of the Great Kivu.

They
intend also to “explore all possible avenues for peaceful coexistence
among all the tribes and ethnics groups living in The Great Kivu and
enforcing security for all the people in the area irrespective of their
tribes, gender, religion and ethnic background.”

Tetunga adds the move will as well initiate an administrative system by the people and for the people in the Great Kivu.

This implies the new joint force intends to hold general elections for Kivu to put in place a functioning government.

Tetunga
further states the group will initiate a grass root campaign against
corruption, nepotism and inefficiency in public service.

“We believe these are the aspirations of all the Congolese people which are long overdue,” says Tetunga.

WHY SPLIT

Multiple
sources in the diplomatic community have revealed the rebels want to
put an end to the gross human rights violations in Kivu by forming a
government similar to that of South Sudan.

“They
want political reform and to be given a chance to manage their
security. The rebellion is already going on and they have captured many
territories from the DRC army,” said a highly placed source.

“People
of the Eastern Congo have been marginalized, forgotten and the region
has been engulfed by endless bloody ethnic and sectarian conflicts. What
we are seeing is self determination within the DRC. The issue also is
affecting the whole DRC not eastern part alone. The issues is national
not just themselves alone,” said a source.

“It
will take time to split but once they have galvanized the political and
security of the region, then they can propose for any sort of
Independence. But their main concern today is the international
community to know their objectives and what they intend to achieve in a
long term. They want their concern to be seen as national not sectarian
or regional,” the source said.

Exiled Rwanda General Kayumba Nyamwasa has
given a vivid description to a Johannesburg Court how he survived a
dramatic assassination attempt on his life outside his Atholl residence
in June 2010.

Nyamwasa
placed his hand on one of the six suspects, Hemedi Sefu, when
prosecutor Shaun Abrahams asked him to identify the shooter in court.

“I
am a trained military man. I tried to dive out of the vehicle but the
bullet hit my stomach. I later wrestled with the shooter to disarm him
before running away,” Nyamwasa told court in a politically sensitive
case that involves army officers and deadly covert intelligence
operations.

Nyamwasa said Hemedi was wearing black trousers and an orange sweater on the fateful day.

He
further testified that he earlier knew a plot to kill him was in the
pipeline thus alerting South Africa’s head of military intelligence. He
was shot weeks later.

The former Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) Chief of Staff said he fled Rwanda to Uganda then Kenya and later South Africa.

Nyamwasa
said he overheard a conversation where one of the people on the other
line was Brigadier Jack Nziza, then military intelligence chief –Rwanda
Defence Forces.

“I reported the phone call threat to police because my life was being threatened.”

Rwanda’s
government spokesperson Louse Mushikiwabo was not readily available for
comment but Kigali has repeatedly denied allegations it was involved in
the assassination plot that severed relations with Pretoria in 2010.

Nyamwasa said his private security was arranged only after the shooting incident on June 19, 2010.

He
also told court that he spent several days in hospital after the
shooting and was bed ridden for a month. He said a bullet is still
lodged in his spine.

RNC

During
the trial, Nyamwasa gave a brief background about his military career,
his escape from Rwanda and the formation of the opposition Rwanda
National Congress (RNC).

He had left India, where was the ambassador, after learning that his mother was ill. She later passed away.

After the funeral, Nyamwasa claims to have asked President Paul Kagame if he would stay in Rwanda.

“On
February 24, after a meeting with RPF, I feared being arrested and
incarcerated. I asked accused 4 Richard Bachisa, whom I trusted, to
drive me to Uganda. Bachisa dropped me some metres away from the border
where I swam across a river before being picked up on the other side of
Uganda,” Nyamwasa told court.

On
RNC, Nyamwasa said former government officials, MPs, journalists and
members of the public joined to form the opposition party.

Regarding
his military career, Nyamwasa said he served in the Uganda army in 1986
before joining RPF thus capturing power in 1994.

He also participated in the Nsele and Arusha peace agreements in 1991 between RPF and government of Juvenal Habyarimana in 1991.

In October 2000, he was appointed Major-General thus relinquishing his job as chief of staff.

Rwanda government’s lawyer told court today that Kigali is interested in the case.

Two gripping accounts of what is happening in Rwanda describe a
picture of the country that foreigners cannot know, and will never get
close to, because of the distorted and aggressive way the Rwandan
government led by president Paul Kagame portrays itself towards the rest
of the world.
The two parts of a same narrative are published by Jennifer Fierberg in Africa Global Village and Salem News.
What is striking is the truth which transpires out of the stories.
Millions of Rwandans inside and outside can see themselves through them.
That is how the majority experiences their unenviable lives under the
Rwandan Patriotic Front regime.
In one of the stories highlighted, the writer explains for example
how Rwandan government spies control every aspect of people lives.
Hotels are for example asked…. to file a report of any incidents of prominent people
who were in the company of members of the opposite sex (not spouses) who
were seeking a hotel room! In short, the police insist on knowing who
is sleeping with whom!
After the Rwandan genocide, Kagame’s government has received billions
of $. Some of these have built new infrastructures in the country, but
others have sustained wars in neighbouring countries and oppressive
judiciary and security systems. That the country be praised for its
economic development, though only benefiting a tiny minority, this does
not make it different from a Stalinist repressive dictatorship.
Far from becoming an African Singapore, Rwanda may loose all the
economic gains accumulated other the years, if the Kagame’s government’s
excessive and oppressive control on people’s lives does not get
relaxed.
Can you imagine a place on earth where you cannot trust your wife,
husband, neighbour, workmate, or child because you suspect they could be
a government spy who is after you?

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, June 21, 9:04 AM

JOHANNESBURG — A Rwandan general
claims Rwandan President Paul Kagame ordered the killing that sparked
the east African country’s 1994 genocide.
Gen. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa made the accusation Thursday as
he testified in a Johannesburg courtroom about an attack on his own life
in 2010.

Asked why the three Rwandans and three Tanzanians on trial may
have wanted him dead, Nyamwasa, who is Rwanda’s former military chief,
began to describe a breakdown in his relationship with Kagame. Nyamwasa
fled in 2010 to South Africa, where he was shot. Rwanda’s government
has denied involvement in the attempted murder.
Nyamwasa testified: “The president of Rwanda ordered the killing of the former president of Rwanda, President Habyarimana.”
A
missile brought down the plane carrying Habyarimana, a Hutu, in 1994.
The current Rwandan government blames Hutu extremists. But Hutu
militants blamed the crash on Tutsis, sparking the genocide.
Copyright
2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DR
Congo (MONUSCO ) recently revealed that the Rwandan government has a
hand in the current instability in eastern Congo by giving support to
the rebel groups National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP)
and/or M23. This does not come as news to those who follow Congolese
politics. Since 1996, the Rwandan government has acted as a major
destabilizing force in the east of the Congo. Myriad studies and reports
have documented how the Rwandan government has waged proxy wars through
rebel groups, pilfering of Congo's resources and trading in hundreds of millions of dollars of conflict minerals.

The report by MONUSCO is not surprising, but the carte blanche that
the Rwandan government enjoys, especially at the international level,
continues to boggle the mind. It would appear that the more Rwanda
destabilizes the Congo, the more military equipment, training,
intelligence and financial aid the government gets from its donors in
the West. Timothy Reid's prescient article in the Harvard Policy Journal entitled "Killing
Them Softly: Has Foreign Aid to Rwanda and Uganda Contributed to the
Humanitarian Tragedy in the Democratic Republic of Congo?" captures
the scale of the impunity with which the Rwandan government has
operated in Congo with the full backing of its donors.

The United States has a law on its books that supporters of the
Rwandan government both inside and outside the US government would wish
to disappear. The Democratic Republic of The Congo Relief, Security and Democracy Promotion Act (PL 109-456),
sponsored by Barack Obama and Co-Sponsored by Hillary Clinton when they
were both Senators, was signed into law in 2006 by President Bush.

Section 105 of Public Law 109-456 says "The Secretary of State is
authorized to withhold assistance made available under the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.), other than
humanitarian, peacekeeping, and counterterrorism assistance, for a
foreign country if the Secretary determines that the government of the
foreign country is taking actions to destabilize the Democratic Republic
of the Congo."

Following a United Nations group of experts report published in 2008
documenting Rwanda's support for the CNDP and its leader at the time,
Laurent Nkunda, Sweden and Netherlands did what the United States has
not done to date; they held the Rwandan government to account by withholding financial aid.
Subsequently, Rwanda demobilized the CNDP and placed Laurent Nkunda
under house arrest only to replace him with Bosco Ntaganda as head of
the CNDP. Now that Ntaganda has become toxic as a result of increasing
demands that he should be brought to the International Criminal Court
(ICC) where he is wanted for war crimes in the Congo, there is now an
attempt to replace him with Sultani Makenga. Noted scholar of the region
Rene LeMarchand stated in the Fall/Winter 2009,Brown Journal of World Affairs that Rwanda is a central actor who will determine whether the region is characterized by peace or war.

Allowing more to die and add to the millions of Congolese already lost
to the war and instability of the last fifteen years is unconscionable.
It is time that the international community and Rwanda's allies,
especially the United States, hold the Rwandan government to account. A
good start would be to implement Section 105 of PL 109-456.

Contact
the U.S. State Department, The White House and members of Congress and
request that they hold the Rwandan government accountable for its
actions in the Congo.
Select Resources that document the Rwandan government's destabilizing role in the Congo

Sunday, June 3, 2012

By: Jennifer Fierberg, MSW
Rwandan National Congress (RNC) Speaks on Rwanda’s issues in the
CongoThe last few weeks have seen the Central Africa region,
particularly the Congo and Rwanda; face many dualities of challenges;
from the sentencing of warlords at the ICC to new rebel groups surfacing
in the Congo. A central player in all of this has, once again, emerged
as Rwanda and the Kagame Regime. For many years President Kagame has
been pulling strings and controlling the lives of millions in the Congo
through private political deals and troops continuing to brutally take
resources from the Congolese. In a surprising move, On Friday June 1,
2012 many Congo MP’s walked out of closed door meeting stating that
secret dealings with Rwanda be debated in public,
(http://www.voanews.com/articleprintview/1146247.html).
The following is the press release as translated by the Rwandan
National Congress:PRESS RELEASE OF MAY 31/2012 NºRNC2012SP001/DRC
(Translated)
The Rwandan people and the world, once again, heard the Rwandan
foreign affairs minister desperately denying the Rwandan government
involvement in the socio-political and military troubles in the Eastern
Democratic Republic of Rwanda (DRC), while the leaked UN report and
MONUSCO confirmed having reliable sources that the Rwanda provides
assistance including military training to rebel groups in that region.
The Rwandan National Congress (RNC) would like to remind the people
of Rwanda that the Rwandan Foreign Affairs statements are pure lies
meant to mislead the people of Rwanda and the international
community. The Rwandan National Congress calls upon all Rwandan hungry
for lasting peace, unity, justice, economic and social development, to
join us in the fight against the continuation of these unnecessary wars
that only serve the interests of President Kagame. Millions of Congolese
and Rwandans continue to die every day; women and girls are being raped
every day. Countless Rwandan soldiers are losing their lives every day,
not to mention the hatred these wars create among the people of the two
nations.
You recall that on May 11, 2012 the coordinator of the Rwandan
National Congress, Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa, in a memo addressed to the
Secretary General of the UN, the Head of States, members of G8, the
European Union, the African Union and the UN Security Council, outlined
why President Kagame is to blame for the humanitarian crisis in the
Eastern DRC. (Attached) This was corroborated by the UN report, which
triggered blistering denial by the Rwandan foreign affairs minister, who
blamed it on MONUSCO instead.
The RNC reminds Rwandans and the international community that lying
has been part of the culture of the Kigali regime. The Rwandan
authorities are constantly asked to lie; it was the case when tens of
thousands of Rwandan troops were fighting in the Democratic Republic of
Congo in the 1996 and 1998, but Rwandan Foreign affairs ministers has
denied the presence of Rwandan soldiers on Congolese soil. These
ministers had to obey the orders of President Kagame: "lying."
The Rwandan National Congress takes this opportunity to ask all
Rwandans to join RNC in condemning personal wars which raise public
debts and cost lives of our fellow citizens.
SE
Jean Paul Turayishimye
Spokesperson, RNC
Email: jpturayishimye@yahoo.com